The AMA passed a resolution to introduce legislation to regulate home births. Women's Health News provides some background on the resolution and states,

The AMA did recommend for
adoption an amended resolution (205) on home birth, as follows:

“That our AMA support state legislation that helps
ensure safe deliveries and healthy babies by acknowledging of the
concept that the safest setting for labor, delivery and the immediate
post-partum period is in the hospital, or a birthing center within a
hospital complex, that meets standards jointly outlined by the AAP and
ACOG, or in a freestanding birthing center that meets the standards of
the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care, The Joint
Commission, or the American Association of Birth Centers.”

Aren’t they just saying that certain types of trained professionals should be the only ones to attend home births?

Not exactly. There were also two resolutions on the table (204 &
239) that were combined and adopted as amended. They stated that the
AMA should “support state legislation regarding appropriate physician
and regulatory oversight of midwifery practice, under the jurisdiction
of either state nursing and/or medical boards.” . .

The resolution also asks that the “American Medical Association only
advocate in legislative and regulatory arenas for the for the licensing
of midwives who are certified by the American College of
Nurse-Midwives.” In other words, the AMA is formalizing in the form of a resolution
the notion that CNMs and CMs recognized by the ACNM should be the only
legally practicing midwives, and that “lay” midwives (there is a lot of
term confusion here, but CPMs, direct-entry, that type of thing) who
are not regulated by a nursing/medical board (because they are not
doctors or nurses by training/certification) should not be allowed to
be licensed to practice under state regulations. . . .

In effect, encouraging states to explicitly make non-ACNM-certified
midwives illegal would probably reduce the pool of available homebirth
providers in a given state considerably, even though this particular
resolution doesn’t specifically address home births. . . .

Midwives and some lay health care providers groups are quite concerned by the resolution as seen in this article at RH Reality Check. Amie Newman writes,

In an unmistakably insecure and aggressive move, the American Medical
Association (AMA) adopted a resolution at its annual meeting last
weekend to introduce legislation outlawing home birth - according to The Big Push for Midwives. . . .

"It's unclear what penalties the AMA will seek to impose on women
who choose to give birth at home, either for religious, cultural or
financial reasons-or just because they didn't make it to the hospital
in time," said Susan Jenkins, Legal Counsel for The Big Push for
Midwives 2008 campaign. "What we do know, however, is that any state
that enacts such a law will immediately find itself in court, since a
law dictating where a woman must give birth would be a clear violation
of fundamental rights to privacy and other freedoms currently protected
by the U.S. Constitution." . . . .

What the AMA's resolution and these other kinds of potential and actual
legislation do is to open the door to penalizing motherhood, in effect.
Because most of these legislative attempts do not directly address the
issue, they leave the door dangerously open to criminalizing women for
making the decisions they feel are best for themselves, their fetuses
and their families.

Proposing this kind of legislation would also force women to birth in
government-approved settings, a scenario that seems almost
unbelievable. According to the Big Push for MIdwives:

Until the AMA proposed ‘Resolution 205 on Home
Deliveries,' no state had considered legislation forcing women to
deliver their babies in the hospital or limiting the choice of birth
setting. Instead, states have regulated the types of midwives that may
legally provide care. Currently, 22 states already license and regulate
CPMs, who specialize in out-of-hospital maternity care and have
received extensive training to qualify as experts in the types of risk
assessment and preventive care necessary for safe and high-quality care
for women who choose give birth at home. Certified Nurse Midwives
(CNMs), who are trained primarily as hospital-based providers, are
licensed in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

The resolution did not offer any science-based information for the AMA's anti-midwife or anti-home birth position. Steff Hedenkamp, Communications Coordinator for The Big Push for
Midwives says, "Maternity care is a multi-billion dollar industry in
the United States. So it's no surprise to see the AMA join the American
College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in its ongoing fight to
corner the market and ensure that the only midwives able to practice
legally are hospital-based midwives forced to practice under physician
control. I will say, though, that I'm shocked to learn that the AMA is
taking this turf battle to the next level by setting the stage for
outlawing home birth itself-a direct attack on those families who
choose home birth, who could be subject to criminal prosecution if the
AMA has its way." . . . .